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I’m not sure in which thread to post this.

I found a game where most of the moves are played in ko threats:

White launches a first ko at move 76 on the west side, even though it looks like Black has more ko threats.

At move 87, Black ignores White’s threat and finishes the first ko by making a double-ponnuki and killing a small white group on the west side.

As a result of White’s executing the threat, a new ko starts on the east side at move 98. Black “wins the ko” a first time at move 103, but decides that simply finishing it is not enough, so instead he plays a tiger’s mouth. The ko starts again.

At move 122, it looks like White has won the ko, but instead of finishing the ko, White plays a move that creates a lot of ko threats. The ko restarts, but now White has a lot of threats.

At move 150, White wins the ko, but decides that finishing it by connecting is not enough, so he plays an atari on the black stones that surround the ko, to increase its value. The ko restarts. At move 155, Black connects his stone which is in atari, and White plays a double-atari on two other Black stones surrounding the ko. The ko continues. At move 161, Black caves in, saves the more important of his two stones and lets White capture the third stone. Finally this second ko is finished.


157, 160: recapturing the ko

At move 172, White starts a new ko on the north side. At move 189, Black turns this ko into a double-ko that favours Black. So, the ko’s value is greatly diminished, but they keep playing it for small endgame/sente reasons.

At move 199, it looks to me like this ko is completely resolved, it’s a simple double-ko that favours Black, so there is no point in playing it anymore. But for some reason, White keeps taking it from time to time. I can only guess that it’s a “timesuji”: taking the double-ko is a worthless-but-costless sente move for White, so if the game is played with a byo-yomi, playing this thoughtless sente move can add some time to the clock.

Finally at move 241, White resigns, with the double ko still on the board.

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